Disclaimers:
Paramount owns ‚em, I just borrow ‚em, except for Heather Whitney and the
junior officers I made up (and Klaria, Tora, and the Torans :)

Author‘s Note:
All right. This was originally in 10 different chapters, but I put it all
together to make one story to post. My fictional character Heather Whitney
is in this story, and if you‘re wondering who she is, read the story "Newcomer"This
was the very first fanfic piece I ever wrote (way back when in the spring/summer
of 1997) so please be kind on the critism! Comments are always welcome
at JaneG100@rocketmail.com!

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 1:
Klaria

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lieutenant
B‘Elanna Torres was having breakfast with her best friends, Tom Paris,
Harry Kim, and Heather Whitney when the Captain‘s voice came over the COMM
system. "All hands report to your regular stations " The four officers
looked at each other. They had no clue as to why the Captain was calling
them at 0600 hours. The region of space they were passing through was relatively
safe.

"What could
be wrong?" Tom asked."It must be
something because the captain doesn‘t do drills at 0600 in the morning
regularly!" replied B‘Elanna.

"Well, whatever
it is, we‘d better go." said Harry, and the four officers walked out of
the mess hall and headed towards the nearsest turbolift. "Bridge." Heather
told the computer, and the turbolift moved up the shaft towards the bridge.
"When the doors opened, Tom went to the CONN, B‘Elanna went to Engineering‘s
station, Harry went to his station, and Heather went to the Science station.

Captain Janeway
was standing in the middle of the bridge staring at the view screen. The
view screen showed a new system, one that none of the officers had ever
seen before. There were suns, thousands of suns, scattered throughout the
system."Where are
we?" asked B‘Elanna."We seem to
be in a region of space called Klaria. We were told that shields don‘t
protect you from the heat by some Beridiians." replied Commander Chakotay.

"The system
has approximatly 50,137 suns scattered throughout 20,000 lightyears. There‘s
no going around it." Harry said from his station."How long
would it take to go around the system?" Captain Janeway asked.

"Uh, 25 years."
replied Harry.

"How long would
it take to go through the system?" asked Commander Chakotay.

"31 days, sir."
replied the ensign.Captain Janeway
sat down in her chair, deep in thought. She had to rule out the possibility
of going around the system. But if they went through it, there would be
radiation and heat to worry about."Lieutenant
Torres," she began.

"Yes, Captain?"
came the reply.

"Would you
be able to modify the shields to block out radiation from the suns?""I could,
but the enviromental controls wouldn‘t be able to compinsate the heat from
the suns. We‘d have to shut down some of the ship to have a temperature
we could tolerate."

"And what might
that temperature be?" asked the Captain, not really wanting to know what
it was."86 to 110
degrees."

The Captain
directed her next question to Heather.

"How long would
the crew be able to stand that temperature?" Captain Janeway asked.

Heather tapped
away at the control panel. Her face became pale when she saw the results.

The crew became
silent when Heather read them."If we drank
a lot and didn‘t do much excersise, about 40 days before our bodies wouldn‘t
be able to tolerate the heat anymore."

"There‘ll be
a senior staff meeting in an hour. It‘s the end of the Alpha shift so you
may be dismissed." Captain Janeway said, and the other officers left, except
for Commander Chakotay.

"There‘s no
way around it and only one way through it," Captain Janeway said, "What
are we to do? If we go through it, we‘ll be risking the lives of the crew
and if we go around it, there‘ll be no chance of returning to the Alpha
quadrent."

"Well, whatever
you decide, I‘m with you." Chakotay said, and the two officers went into
Captain Janeway‘s office to discuss the materials they‘d need and to make
some plans.

* * * * *

Meanwhile,
Tom, B‘Elanna, Harry, and Heather were in the library, trying to find ways
to help the crew in the heat, for they were almost sure of what the captain
would decide. Go through the system. The four officers had gone and told
Neelix and Kes the situation, and they had been eager to help. B‘Elanna
was trying to find ways to enhance the enviromental controls, Tom and Harry
were going through Voyager‘s blueprint plans, trying to find any section
that they could shut off, Neelix was looking through the food section,
trying to find cold foods and Kes and Heather were looking through the
medical database, searching through the crew‘s medical files."I can‘t find
any cold foods that are nutritious!" Neelix said in dismay, sighing.

"Well, then,
what about unnutritios foods?" asked Heather, a wicked gleam coming to
her eyes.

"But, the crew..."
Neelix started to say something but was inturrupted by Tom."What about
ice cream, popsicles, pudding, jello, and yogurt? They aren‘t exactly nutritious
but they are cold and they are delicious." he suggested."Oh? I‘ve
never even heard of that stuff before." B‘Elanna said, looking up from
a console.

"Neither have
I." Neelix said.

"I‘ll second
that." Kes said.

Tom, Harry,
and Heather looked at each other and laughed."Well, then,
welcome to the world of sweets!" said Heather, and she went over to the
replicator."Three ice
cream sundaes, with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, and nuts."

A sundae appeared
in the replicator.

"Oh, and three
spoons."Three spoons
appeared next to the sundae. Heather picked them up and

passed the
spoons out. "Try it."B‘Elanna,
Neelix, and Kes took a bite.

"This is good!"
B‘Elanna said.

"I knew you‘d
like it." replied Heather.Neelix and
Kes agreed with B‘Elanna. After they had finished the sundaes, they went
back to work. Neelix did too, finding a whole new database to search. Ten
minutes later, Tom and Harry encountered a problem."We can‘t
shut down anything!" complained Tom."The quarters
take up 2/6ths of the ship. If we could shut them down, the temperature
would be around 89 degrees all over the ship, but then there‘d be no place
to sleep!" Harry said."Well, what
are the other 2/3rds?" asked B‘Elanna."3/6ths are
the main stations, such as the Bridge, Sick Bay, Engineering, Stellar Cartography,
and the Transporter rooms, and 1/6th is for recreational purposes,
such as the Mess Hall and the holodecks, and if we shut down the holodecks,
there‘ll be no place anywhere near the temperature we‘re used to!" said
Tom.

"What if we
shut down the quarters and moved all the personnel into the cargo bays?
Sometimes on the Enterprise D, they‘d install beds, sonic showers, ecetera,
and move people who were being evacuated in there. The cargo bays are big
enough." Heather said thoughtfully.

"That could
work." said Tom, and he and Harry continued to work. Soon the hour was
up and the six senior officers went to the conference lounge. They sat
down and waited.

"Commander
Chakotay and I have decided to take Voyager through the system." Captain
Janeway said.

‚Told you so.‘
Heather sent B‘Elanna, Tom, Harry, Kes, and Neelix a telepathic message.
The five officers looked amused. The other crew members noticed but Captain
Janeway didn‘t. Commander Chakotay looked questionly at the five officers
but B‘Elanna just shrugged.

"Before we
enter this system, I‘m going to give each of you a task. Tuvok, I want
you to modify the shields so that no radiation leaks into Voyager."

The vulcan
nodded, Captain Janeway continued, "Tom, I want you to find the systems
that we don‘t need and shut them down so we can keep a toleratable temperature
all around the ship."

Tom got an
amused look on his face. Heather tried not to giggle, but she did and turned
it into a cough.

"Actually,
I already have. If we move all the personnel into the cargo bays and shut
down the quarters, we‘d be able to get at least 91 degrees all over the
ship. " he said. The other five officers that had been in the library laughed."What is so
funny?" Commander Chakotay asked.

"Yes, do tell."
Captain Janeway added."Well, Tom,
Harry, Heather and I knew what decision you‘d make so we decided to be
helpful during our spare time. Neelix and Kes also helped." B‘Elanna said,
filling in the four other officers."I see. Very
good." Captain Janeway said, "B‘Elanna, do you think you could enhance
the...""The enviromental
controls? I could, by using some of auxillary power. The lowest temperature
we could get would by 78 degrees. We could get the temperature in Sick
Bay down to 63 degrees, the holodecks would function as usual and for the
cargo bays, 65 degrees at night." B‘Elanna finished and answered Captain
Janeway‘s question. Captain Janeway looked amused.

"Harry, I want
you to keep a close watch on any suns that are unstable. We don‘t want
any super-novas happening while we‘re in the system.""Yes, Captain."

"Neelix, I
want you to find cold foods and become used to making them."

"Uh,...Captain?
I already have and I found one that‘s very good. I believe its called..."

Please let it
not have anything to do with leoa roots! * Captain Janeway thought.

"An ice cream
sundae."

"Ice cream?
I haven‘t had that since I was a kid." exclaimed the Captain.

"Well, I look
forward to having some." Tuvok replied.Captain Janeway
continued, "Heather and Kes, I want you two to go through the personnel
files and single out the crew members that will be most seductive to the
heat.""It‘s humans."
Kes replied.Captain Janeway
nodded. She was not happy at the reply, "Doctor, find any medicine that
will help relieve heat stress."The Doctor
nodded."There‘ll
have to be a change in the dress code as well. We‘d all die of heat stroke
before the first week was over. I haven‘t made it up yet so I‘m open to
suggestions. We‘ll enter the system a week from today. Dismissed." and
Captain Janeway got up from her chair and walked out of the room. The remaining
senior officers looked at each other. A week. A week! A week until they
entered the system. One by one they left the room. B‘Elanna and Heather
headed for the turbolift. B‘Elanna‘s shift in engineering would start soon,
and Heather had volunteered to help.

"Engineering,"
B‘Elanna told the computer, "Well, I guess it won‘t be cool for long."
she said to Heather, as the turbolift made its way down the shaft to engineering.

"Yeah. I just
hope we won‘t encounter any problems with the heat. Like with the warp
core." replied Heather."Right, but
I think I might be able to create a warp field around it so it will stay
stable.""I keep on
thinking of the 20th century. There were things called fans
that moved the air around and made the room cooler. We could install those
all over Voayger and give enviromental controls a break."

"That‘s a good
idea. I bet you that in less than a week, we‘ll be living in the cargo
bays." B‘Elanna said."No bet. I‘m
sure too."

The turbolift
doors opened and the two lieutenants got out and headed for Engineering.* * * * *

During the
next week, life on Voyager was chaos. There were last minute reports on
the syustens, bunks, showers, replicators, ect. were installed in the cargo
bays. One cargo bay would be for the men and one would be for the women.
Fans of all shapes and sizes were installed everywhere. Crewmembers packed
and moved their belongins into the cargo bays, and last

but not least,
everyone had to get a new uniform. The code was red (command), yellow (security/engineering),
or blue (science/medical) top and black shorts.

B‘Elanna and
Tom had gotten into a fight about something but Harry and Heather were
too busy to do anything about it, for they were running around checking
things on the ship. Heather had once compared her day to a hamster running
on a wheel. "You just keep going and going and you don‘t get anywhere!"
Harry had agreed. It seemed that as soon as they were finished with one
thing, they were given another task.

B‘Elanna had
turned the temperature up to 88 degrees gradually so the crew would get
used to it. Water was plentiful, medical supplies were ready, and there
was an unlimited supply of replicator rations since Voyager was collecting
plasma particles from the sun. Finally, all the senior staff was on the
bridge, in their new uniforms."Mr. Paris,
set a course for the Alpha quadrent, Warp 6." the Captain ordered."Yes, ma‘am.",
and Voyager made its way past the invisible border and into the system.
Almost instantly, the temperature started rising."Temperature
has risen to 113 degrees." Heather said from her station."B‘Elanna,
I thought you said the temperature would be below 105 degrees when we entered
the system." Commander Chakotay called.

"The temperature‘s
rising so quickly that the enviromental controls can‘t compinsate. I‘ll
have to use auxillary power." B‘Elanna called out.

"Do it." Captain
Janeway ordered. B‘Elanna went back to punching keys on the control panel.
Soon the heat grew less intense, although it was still very hot.

"Temperature
is dropping. 110, 105, 100, 97, 96, 94, 92, 90, 88 degrees. Temperature
has dropped down to 88 degrees and is staying." Heather said happily from
her station, glad that the heat had dropped. But she knew this would just
add to B‘Elanna‘s bad mood.

"Sorry about
that," B‘Elanna said, reading the results, "We passed too close to a sun."
B‘Elanna glared at Tom.

Heather restrained
from laughing. She was getting used to Tom and B‘Elanna‘s little tirades
about things that didn‘t really matter. Fortuantly, none of the other officers
noticed her amusement or the tension between Tom and B‘Elanna. But, then
again, she told herself, no one else was half batazoid. Normally, Tom and
B‘Elanna would forget about their little fights, but, this time, they wouldn‘t.
Tom and B‘Elanna were already mad at each other.

Tom returned
the glare. That just made B‘Elanna even more mad but she managed to restrain
herlself from losing her temper. Heather noticed and so did Harry. They
exchanged a glance each of them knew well. It meant, ‚Not again!‘ Harry
shook his head, ‚Why do they

always have
to fight about nothing?‘ he asked Heather telepathically, using the little
empathic ability that Whitney had taught him. ‚I have no idea, but that‘s
a good question. You should try asking them that.‘ she replied. ‚Very funny,‘
he replied, ‚But seriously, what can we do?‘ ‚Don‘t ask me.‘ Heather replied.
Harry looked down at his station‘s console, where a light was flashing.

"It looks like
a sun‘s going to collapse soon," he reported, "But its so far away it won‘t
come in contact with Voyager."

Captain Janeway
nodded and sat back in her chair, watching the viewscreen and all the suns.
The adventure was just beginning.

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 2:
Troubled Times

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Ughh! This
stupid machine!" muttered B‘Elanna two hous later. She had been given orders
to fix the enviromental controls to make sure they were okay. They were,
altough she had to fix one minor problem. The air filters. Carbon dioxide
was filtering through it with the air and it wasn‘t blocking it."The heat
getting to you as well?" a voice asked sympathetically. It was Heather."What are
you doing here?" B‘Elanna asked, avoiding the question. The little feud
between her and Tom had grown into a big fight in the corridor after entering
the system.

"Well, I finished
checking the warp core like Captain Janeway asked and I came down here
to see if you needed any help." came the explanation.

"I heard that
you and Tom got into a big fight." Heather said, bringing up the subject
bluntly.

B‘Elanna sighed.
She had known Heather would find out, "I don‘t want to talk about it."
she said. She had lost her temper in the corridor and was hurting because
of what Tom had said. He had said a lot of things, but to sum it all up,
he had said he didn‘t want to have anything to do with her at all. That
had been fine with B‘Elanna. She had agreed, and Tom had walked off. It
took only a few seconds to realize what he had said. It had hit her, just
like a storm, slapping her in the face with reality. Just the thought of
it brought tears to her eyes.

"All right.
Suit yourself. It‘s your decision to make, not mine. But I‘m not half batazoid
for nothing. He‘s hurting, and so are you." Heather replied, "I‘ll see
you later." and she walked off, leaving B‘Elanna to think about what she
had said. She went to the nearest turbolift and got

off at deck
2. She had promised to meet Harry at the mess hall in a few minutes and
she didn‘t want to be late. She entered the mess hall, got some rasberry
frozen yogurt and looked around. She soon spotted Harry and went over to
talk to him.

"So did you
try to talk to Tom?" she asked. The look on his face made her spirits drop.
She and Harry had decided to take matters into their own hands and try
to patch things up between their best friends."Like you
said, I tried." Harry replied.

"Didn‘t go
to well, did it?" she asked.

"No.""The problem
is that they‘re both so stubborn! They really care about each other underneath.
They‘re both hurting." Heather consented.

"I know. You
should have seen some of the fights they got into before you came on board!"
Harry said.

"Remember when
she got all steamed up because he called her ‚hostile‘?" Heather asked,
grinning.

Harry groaned,
"Don‘t remind me. She asked me, of all people, if I thought she was hostile.
She looked like she was going to kill me.""Well, we‘re
out of options. Have any suggestions?" Heather asked.

"For once,
no. Maybe we should just let nature take its course?" Harry replied."Yeah, that
would really work!" Heather replied, and the two friends got to work, thinking
furiously of what to do.

An hour later,
3215 hours, Heather walked over to her bunk in cargo bay 2. Most of the
officers were asleep, but some were still awake. Captain Janeway was working
quietly on her bed, tapping away on a PADD. She was dressed in a loose
nightshirt and boxers. She looked up when Heather passed and smiled. Heather
fit in well already, and she had only been on board Voayger for four months.
At first, Captain Janeway had been skeptical of Heather, but after getting
to know her better, she had admitted to herself that Heather made a fine
addition to Voyager‘s crew. Heather had been friendly to everyone and hadn‘t
been bothered at the fact that some of her crewmates were Marquis. She
was always eager to lend a hand.

Heather smiled
back and made her way to a small case where her belongings were kept. She
grabbed what she needed and headed to the changing room. After taking a
shower and changing into her pajamas, she got a glass of water and went
over to her bunk, which was a top one, and climbed the ladder. B‘Elanna‘s
bunk was below hers and she was already asleep. Heather tried to be quiet,
but one of the rungs squeaked and B‘Elanna‘s eyes flew

open. When
she saw it was Heather, she grinned.

"Hi." she said.
Heather thought she heard sadness in her voice. Just to be sure, she doublechecked,
using her telepathic powers. Aha! I thought so, Heather thought. B‘Elanna
was sad, mad, and confused with what had happened between her and Tom.‚Sorry I woke
you.‘ Heather told B‘Elanna telepathically, so she wouldn‘t wake anyone
else.

"It‘s okay."
B‘Elanna whispered.‚Don‘t worry.
Everything will work out between you and Tom, you‘ll see.‘ Heather said,
telepathically, with a knowing smile, and climbed into bed.B‘Elanna gave
her a dubious look.Heather smiled
sympathetically. ‚Well, maybe next time you‘ll think before you speak,‘
she said, telepathically, ‚Goodnight.‘"Goodnight."
B‘Elanna said, closing her eyes.Everything
was peaceful and everyone was content, except for two crew members who
had broken hearts.

I hope things
work out between Tom and B‘Elanna, Heather thought, and she fell asleep,
with the humming of fans in the background.

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 3:
Fire

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

During the
next few days, everything on Voyager ran smoothly. Tom made sure that Voyager
didn‘t go close to any suns and B‘Elanna made sure enviromental controls
were working. But the heat was getting to the crew. Captain Janeway was
working extra hard. One day, when Captain Janeway didn‘t come to the bridge
in the morning, Commander Chakotay sent a medical team down to Cargo Bay
2. There, Kes and Heather found her unconcious.

After scanning
her with a tricorder, Kes announced that the Captain had heat stroke. Heather
gave Captain Janeway a hypospray and they beamed her to sick bay. There,
the Doctor told her what had happened when she gained conciousness, which
was six hours later.

"I sugggest
you spend the day in Sick Bay and take the next few days off from duty."
the Doctor informed her."But..."Captain
Janeway started to say something but was interrupted by the Doctor.

"Doctor‘s orders."
he said, and walked off. Kes handed her a PADD."Commander
Chakotay wanted me to give this to you." she said. Captain Janeway took
the PADD and thanked Kes. Kes smiled and left. Captain Janeway started
reading the PADD, and found much to her surprise that there was a class
M planet capable of supporting life two days away. Chakotay had said he
would check to make sure it wouldn‘t endanger the crew by taking a side
trip to it, and if it didn‘t, he would plot a course for the planet.

When she was
done reading the PADD, she lay back down on the bio bed and sighed. It
was going to be a long day.(Before) On
the bridge, Harry was double checking the sensors."The sensors
are right, There is a class M planet capable of supporting life two days
away from our current position at warp six." Harry said."What is the
temperature on the planet?" Commander Chakotay asked.

"107 degrees."
Harry said."Would we
still be able to make it past this system if we made a detour?" Commander
Chakotay asked, this time directing the question towards Tuvok."With all
systems operating, yes." Tuvok replied."Lieutenant
Paris, set a course for the planet, warp seven." Commander Chakotay ordered.
Tom punched some buttons on his station‘s console and the ship made its
way towards the planet.

Down in Engineering,
B‘Elanna was shouting orders quickly and everyone there was scurrying around.
It was like a beehive. Smoke was pouring out of the warp core."Torres to
Chakotay." B‘Elanna said, tapping her commbadge. Her voice didn‘t sound
right.

"Chakotay here.
What is it?" he asked."We‘ve got
a fire down in engineering. It was started by the warp core. Pull the ship
out of warp. I‘ll try to compinsate the plasma particles, but they‘re spreading
too quickly. We‘ll probaly have to evacuate Engineering. Torres [coughing]
out." Smoke was filling Engineering quickly. Lieutenant Whitney and Lieutenant
Carey started to evacuate the deck, but no one

noticed that
B‘Elanna wasn‘t there.

"Tom, Harry,
get down there and help." Chakotay ordered and Tom and Harry dashed for
the turbolift on the bridge.

Down in Engineering,
the engineers could barely see where they were. There saw no way they could
stop the fires by themselves. They‘d have to close down engineering and
fill it with carbon dioxide, which would put out the fires.

Tom and Harry
broke into a run when the turbolift doors opened. They could barely see,
for there was smoke everywhere. They found Heather and Lieutenant Carey
hurrying people along towards the turbolifts."Where‘s B‘Elanna?"
Tom asked, for he hadn‘t seen her on the way from the turbolift.Heather looked
puzzled. "You mean to say that she‘s not down there?" she asked, waving
her hand towards the corridor."No." replied
Harry."Paris to
Torres." Tom said, tapping his commbadge. There was no reply. "Computer,
locate Lieutenant Torres." Heather told the computer."Lieutenant
Torres is in Engineering, deck fourteen." came the computer‘s reply.

Lieutenant
Carey hesitated."Go. And that‘s
an order." Heather said. Carey ran off down the corridor and the three
remaining officers looked at each other. The Tom remembered B‘Elanna‘s
words. "I‘ll try to compinsate the plasma particles,""Heather,
where would you ‚try to compinsate the plasma particles‘?" Tom asked.

"Oh, my gosh!
You don‘t suppose..." Heather muttered to no one in particular."That would
be next to the warp core. Tom, you can‘t..." Harry started to say something,
then stopped, for Tom had disappeared into the smoke.

"Tom? Tom!
Where are you!" Harry and Heather called, searching about the corridor.
They recieved no answer. After a few agonizing seconds, two figures appeared
from the warp core area of Engineering. It was Tom, and he was carrying
a lifeless figure. It was B‘Elanna."Is she alive?"
Heather asked, hurrying over to Tom.Tom checked
B‘Elanna‘s pulse and grimaced. "Just barely." he replied, looking ashen.
Either he was worried to death or the smoke was getting to him. Probaly
both, Heather thought.

"Let‘s get
her to Sick Bay." Heather said, and she started running down the corridor
to the turbolift. Harry and Tom followed. Soon they reached Sick Bay. No
one was in sight, except for Captain Janeway, who was in the Doctor‘s office,
looking bored to death. She looked up in surprise when they came dashing
in to Sick Bay.

"What happened?"
she asked, getting up from the Doctor‘s chair and hurrying over to them.
Tom lay B‘Elanna on one of the bio beds and checked her pulse. It was there,
but just barely. Tom, Harry, and Heather were all breathing heavily. Soot
was all over their uniforms and they had burns on their arms and legs.
Slowly they told the Captain what happened, while

Heather gave
B‘Elanna a hypospray."Fire [gasp]
in engineering." Heather explained."Activate
Emergency Medical Holodoc program" Captain Janeway told the computer. The
Doctor appeared and started to say the usual, "Please state the nature
of the medical emergency", but when he saw B‘Elanna on the bio bed, be
put together a hypospray immediatly and gave it to her."What happened?"
he asked, directing the question towards the Captain.

"There was
a fire in Engineering. Will she be all right?" Captain Janeway asked."That remains
to be seen. I‘ll have to ask all of you to leave Sick Bay. Doctor to Kes."
the Doctor said, tapping his commbadge at the end."Kes here.
Is something wrong, Doctor?" came Kes‘s reply over the CONN system.

"There‘s a
medical emergency. Please report to Sick Bay immediatly." the Doctor replied."Yes, Doctor.
Kes out," and the Doctor started getting different hyposprays set up, oblivious
to the other four concerned officers.

"Didn‘t you
hear me? I asked you to leave Sick Bay!" the Doctor said, annoyed. The
four other officers left Sick Bay reluctantly and headed for the bridge.
Captain Janeway tried to cheer them up, but it was no use. They reached
the bridge, Heather gave Commander Chakotay a report, and Commander Chakotay
then gave Captain Janeway a report.

"What are you
doing here? I thought the Doctor ordered you to remain off duty." he reminded
the Captain. Captain Janeway just smiled.

"Well, I was
ordered to leave Sick Bay. Where else was I supposed to go?" she replied,
smiling. Chakotay smiled, then remembered the situation."How is she?"
he asked, looking sullen."It‘s too
soon to tell but she looked dead. Of course, she‘s not." replied Captain
Janeway, saying the last part quickly. Why, oh why did I have to say that
she looked dead?, she asked herself.

Meanwhile,
Heather let loose the carbon dioxide in Engineering from B‘Elanna‘s station.
The fires were put out, and a few minutes later she filled the room with
oxygen. She got up from the station and headed for the turbolift. She rounded
up the engineers who were supposed to be on duty and headed for engineering.The Doctor
contacted Captain Janeway, "Doctor to Janeway."

"Janeway here.""You said
to inform you of Lieutenant Torres‘s condition," the Doctor said. Everyone
on the bridge remained quiet, "She will be all right, although she‘ll need
to rest for a while. But, knowing her, Lieutenant Torres will be ‚up and
about‘ in a few days." the Doctor informed her.

Relief showed
visibly on the Captain‘s face.

"Thank you.
Janeway ou..." she paused, "Doctor, one last thing. Inform Lieutenant Whitney
of Torres‘s condition.""As you wish.
Doctor out." Captain Janeway sat back in her chair and sighed with relief.As soon as
his shift was over, Tom went to see B‘Elanna. No one was in sick bay for
he had spotted Kes on the turbolift.

B‘Elanna heard
someone approaching. She thought it was the Doctor or Kes, but when she
gradually opened her eyes, she saw it was Tom. She looked at him, not daring
to say a word. When she did say something, it was two very simple words
that she regretted not saying earlier. They were "I‘m sorry." Tom looked
surprised, then he grinned.

"Whatever are
you talking about, Lieutenant B‘Elanna Torres? I‘m the one who should be
sorry!" he replied.

B‘Elanna laughed.
"How about a truce." she said. This time, Tom laughed. They started talking.

Half an hour
later, when Tom was kissing B‘Elanna goodbye, Heather and Kes walked in.
When niether of the other two lieutenants saw them, they quickly retraced
their steps and went back out into the corridor."Will wonders
never cease!" Heather said.Kes laughed,
"And I thought you said that they were at each other‘s throats!" she said,
her eyes dancing. Heather was about to reply, but was interrupted by Tom
walking out of Sick Bay, looking happy. As soon as he turned the corner,
Heather muttered, "Well, hello to you, to!"

sarcastically.
Kes laughed and the two of them walked into Sick Bay.

Heather caught
B‘Elanna up with the news and gossip and then went to help Kes with her
work. But before she went into the office, she sent B‘Elanna a telepathic
message. It was, ‚I told you so.‘ B‘Elanna just smiled. She didn‘t have
to ask what Heather meant. For once, things were looking good.

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 4:
Tora

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Four days later,
with Captian Janeway in command and B‘Elanna out of Sickbay (although she
wasn‘t allowed to go on duty for another day at least), Voyager reached
the planet.

The only thing
the sensors could tell about the planet was that it could support life,
the planet had large amounts of silner (a mineral they used for the warp
engines), and the temperature of the atmosphere was 98 degrees so Captain
Janeway decided to send down an away team consisting of Commander Chakotay,
Lieutenant Tuvok, and Whitney. When the trio beamed down to the planet,
they were in a field with trees surrounding it. At one end, there was a
river, with a waterfall falling from a fifty foot high cliff."It‘s gorgeous!"
Heather remarked, gazing around."The silner
readings are coming from behind the waterfall. I wouldn‘t be surprised
if there was a cave behind it." Commander Chakotay remarked, "Let‘s go."
he said, leading the way to the waterfall. Tuvok and Whitney followed.
An hour later, they arrived. All of a sudden, shots rang out and Tuvok
and Whitney were shot. Two figures jumped out of the forest and dragged
the lifeless bodies back into the woods. Another three grabbed Commander
Chakotay and pulled him into the forest as well. Soon he was given a potion
and lapsed into unconciousness.

An hour later,
Captain Janeway was puzzled. She hadn‘t been contacted by the away team
and now the sensors couldn‘t pick up their lifesigns. She had tried to
contact them, but she had just heard static. Apperantly, the COMM system
wasn‘t working, either. A suspicous thought crossed her mind. If the sensors
couldn‘t pick up the away team, then they wouldn‘t be able to pick up any
other lifesigns. What if there were other lifeforms on the planet. She
decided to send another away team down to the planet, led by herself. They‘d
take a shuttle instead of using the transporter. Now, I‘ll take Tom as
the pilot, Harry, and... drat, I can‘t take B‘Elanna, but maybe..."Janeway to
Doctor."

"Doctor here."
came the reply.

"Could I take
B‘Elanna on the away team?" she asked."That wouldn‘t
be advisable, but I doubt she‘ll listen. As long as she takes it easy,
she‘ll...""Good. Janeway
out."Tom and Harry
looked at each other in surprise. Normally the Captain wouldn‘t order somebody
to go on any away team unless they were 100% healthy."Janeway to
Torres.""Torres here."
came B‘Elanna‘s voice. She sounded hopeful, "Is there something I can help
you with?"

"As a matter
of fact, there is. Do you feel up to going on an away mission?" Captain
Janeway asked."Sure!" B‘Elanna‘s
voice was filled with enthusiasm.Boy, she must
be bored if she actually wants to go on an away mission, Tom thought, but
he kept it to himself.

"Good. Meet
me in Shuttle Bay 1. Janeway out," the Captian told Torres. She turned
to Paris and Kim, "Tom, Harry, you‘re with me. Lieutenant Hawkins," she
said, referring to the man manning Tuvok‘s station," You‘ll be in charge
of Voyager while we‘re gone. We‘ll contact you when we reach the surface."
and Captain Janeway headed for the turbolift. Tom and Harry followed her.

B‘Elanna was
already at the shuttle bay when the threesome arrived. A phaser and tricorder
were in her belt.

Captian Janeway
smiled when she saw B‘Elanna and nodded, "We‘ll take," the Captain‘s eyes
swept over the shuttles, "Constellations." she said, choosing the third
largest shuttle in the shuttle bay, and the four officers got into the
shuttle.

After undocking
and getting pulled into orbut, they started scanning for the away team.
There was no sign of them. Captian Janeway ordered Tom to land the shuttle
where the away team had beamed down to.

Soon, they
felt a volt, followed by another one. Soon all four officers were fighting
to keep their balance. Then the shuttle began to spin.

"What‘s going
on?" Captain Janeway yelled over the chaos as they tried to fix whatever
was wrong.

"There seem
to be electrical storms that the sensors didn‘t pick up. I‘ll try to land."
Tom called out, and then there was a loud crash. The shuttle stopped spinning
and all four officers became unconcious.

Commander Chakotay
was the first one to become concious. When his eyes finally adjusted to
the dim light, he found that he was tied up against a large rock about
the size of a shuttle. Whitney and Tuvok were next to him, still unconcious.
Their commbadges, phasers, and tricorders were gone. Whitney groaned softly
and slowly opened her eyes."Where are
we?" she asked quietly.

"We‘re being
held captive on the planet." Commander Chakotay replied.

"Oh."Tuvok soon
regained conciousness and the three officers racked their brains, but they
couldn‘t think of a way to escape. The rope tying their hands and feet
were too tight to undo and all three of them were tyed at the waist by
a rope going all around the rock so they couldn‘t get up. Their only consolation
was that Captain Janeway would send down another away team to look for
them.

A young man
who was dressed in furs and had wrinkles on his nose, like a bajoran, offered
them a drink. He offered the canister to Whitney first. She sniffed it
suspiciously, then took a sip. She looked surprised, then grimaced.

"It tastes
like lemon juice." she sputtered, but drank some anyway. The man looked
slightly puzzled at her reactoin, then offered the flask to Commander Chakotay.
he took a sip, then drank. Tuvok had a drink as well and then the man left

Commander Chakotay
sighed. It was going to be a long night for it was very hot, with no shade
to protect them from the heat, for although it was night, there were still
a few suns in the sky. Then clouds came and darkened the sky, bringing
rain, thunder, and lightning. The people dashed into their huts, completely
oblivious to the three hostages. Whitney was overjoyed at first because
she thought the rain would cool the planet down, but she was sadly mistaken.
The rain was quite warm and sticky.

Captain Janeway
opened her eyes. She was sprawled across the shuttle‘s floor. Slowly she
got into a sitting position. The shuttle was badly damaged. She went over
to the computer console and sat down on the chair which she had been sitting
on before the crash. The console was blank, with no lights. Just blackness.

"Darn!" she
said, slamming her fist against the console. She then went over to the
shuttle‘s hatch, tapped in a command on the panel next to it, and the door
slowly and haltingly opened. It was raining, with thunder and lightning
in the distance. Captain Janeway put her hand out to feel the rain, hoping
it would be cool. Unfortuantly, it was warm and sticky.

"Ugh." she
said, pulling her hand back into the shuttle. She closed the shuttle‘s
door seven-eighths of the way, leaving just a crack for fresh air to come
in. Captain Janeway then tried contacting Voyager but all she got was static.
Her left arm felt slightly strange and when she scanned herself with her
tricorder, she found that she had dislocated her shoulder so she went over
to the med kit and scanned it with a dermal regenerator. Her shoulder felt
a little better, but it was still sore. She gave herself a hypospray. Much
better, she thought. After scanning the away team, she found that asside
from B‘Elanna‘s broken arm, everyone was fine, except for

a few scratches
and bruises here and there. She gave B‘Elanna a hypospray and fixed her
arm with the dermal regenerator as well.

It was going
to be awhile before the other away team members woke up so she ate a little
bit of the emergency rations she had found. She drifted off to sleep, listening
to the drumming of the rain on the shuttle‘s roof.

"Captain?"
B‘Elanna called, wondering it she was alive. She had woken up to find herself
sprawled across the shuttle‘s floor, along with everyone else, minus Captain
Janeway. She had a gash on her side.Captain Janeway
aoke with a start. When she saw it was only B‘Elanna, she smiled.

"Have the storms
gone?" she asked."Yes, they
have. The footings treacherous, though. I fell twice just walking around
the shuttle and back to see how badly damaged the engines were." B‘Elanna
replied, grimacing.

"We‘d better
get the shuttle running. I‘ll get the main computer system working and
you work on the engines." Captain Janeway said, getting up.

B‘Elanna smiled.
In a crisis, you could always count on Captain Janeway to keep things in
order. The two officers got to work.About ten
minutes later, Tom woke up. He walked over to B‘Elanna."What happened?"
he whispered. Unfortuantly, B‘Elanna hadn‘t realised he was there for her
back was towards him. She spun around, startled. When she saw it was Tom,
she relaxed visibly."Don‘t every
sneak up on me again! You scared me so much!" she said, anger filling her
voice.

"Sorry." Tom
replied. He hadn‘t meant to scare her, "What happened, though?"B‘Elanna laughed
softly and went back to her repairs, "Thanks to your expert piloting skills
we crashed." she said.

"It wasn‘t
my fault!" Tom said, anger rushing to his voice. He was about to start
ranting when B‘Elanna laughed again.

"I was kidding!
Don‘t worry, it could have happened to anybody." she said, reasuringly,
"But we did crash and we can‘t contact Voyager or the other away team.

"Where‘s the
Captain?" Tom asked, but didn‘t need an answer for Captain Janeway walked
in from outside. She smiled at Tom, then informed the two lieutenants,
"I managed to get the computer back online." she said, going over to a
computer console.

"I‘m almost
done with the engines, although they‘re broken pretty badly." B‘Elanna
informed the Captain.

"Good. When
Harry regains conciousness we‘ll search for the other away team." Captain
Janeway said, "In the meantime, Tom, get the navigational controls back
online. B‘Elanna, finish repairing the engines, and I‘ll try to find out
exactly where we are by using the external sensors."

Kim soon regained
conciousness and together they got the shuttle more or less repaired, stopping
briefly for a break.

"All right.
We‘ll head for the water over there. We should reach it by nightfall. No
rushing." Captain Janeway paused, looking straight at Torres, for she inclined
to rush. Torres nodded, "Let‘s go." she finished, and the foursome headed
for the water, Captain Janeway in the lead. Ten suns were setting when
the got there. It was a beauticul sight. They found a cave

behind the
waterfall and set up camp, using the supplies they had brought.

When everyone
was asleep, B‘Elanna got up and climbed the rocks so that she was standing
on the cliff that the waterfall fell from. The view was spectacular. She
had never seen anything like it. She scanned the horizen for the away team
but all that she could see was trees, for miles and miles, in the distance.
B‘Elanna stood up from the rock she had been sitting on and yawned. I‘d
better go back to the cave, B‘Elanna thought, but stayed where she was,
scanning the sky for Voyager. she sat back down on the rock, hugging her
legs to her chest. B‘Elanna was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she
didn‘t realise that she wasn‘t the only one on the cliff. Tom hadn‘t been
able to sleep, either so he had climbed the rocks to get a better view
of the planet. To his surprise, he found B‘Elanna already there. She was
sitting on a large rock next to the point right before the cliff broke
off, looking a million lightyears away.

"B‘Elanna?"
he asked quietly, approaching her carefully, remembering that last time
he had scared her.B‘Elanna looked
up, not the least bit surprised, and smiled when she saw it was Tom, "Hi."

"Couldn‘t get
any sleep either?" Tom questioned."No," B‘Elanna
replied softly, her eyes shining in the evening moonlight, or more precisely,
the evening sunlight. " Look!" she pointed to a place in the sky. Tom looked
and saw to his surprise a shooting star.

"It‘s gorgeous!"
he replied. They watched the star until it faded into the distance. Tom
saw B‘Elanna shiver so he put his arm around her and kissed her. She smiled
softly and turned to say something, but her smile was replaced with pure
anguish. Her hand went to her side where she had skillfully hidden the
deep gash there and graoned softly. Concern filled Tom‘s face."What‘s wrong?"
he
asked.

"B‘Elanna?
What are you trying to do? Kill yourself? You‘ll never make it!" Tom exclaimed.B‘Elanna just
laughed quietly in response, "I‘ve had worse," she replied, "I‘m fine!
Really!", exasperating the last word to the extreme.Tom got the
message and changed the subject, "I hope the away team is okay." he said.B‘Elanna nodded,
"I wonder what could have happened to them? I mean, Chakotay isn‘t the
type that gets lost, Tuvok is so logical, and Heather is too smart to do
something stupid, although she sometimes gets carried away," she said.
They laughed, remembering some of the times Heather had gone out of control,
"Something must be wrong or else they‘d have been back

on Voyager
by now."

"I‘m sure they‘re
all right. They probaly got caught in the rain and spent the night somewhere.
They‘re probaly heading back here right now." Tom said reasuriungly, although
he too was worried, "Why don‘t we try to get some sleep?" he suggested,
smothering a yawn.

"That‘s a good
idea. Let‘s go." B‘Elanna replied, and she cautiously climbed back down
the rocks. Tom followed. They lay down on their ‚beds‘."Good night,
Tom." B‘Elanna said softly, closing her eyes.

"Night, B‘Elanna."
Tom replied, and they both drifted off to sleep.=/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 5:
Escape

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When Captain
Janeway woke up eight hours later, she immediatly looked around, disoriented.
As soon as she realised where she was, she got up, did her hair into a
double ponytail, and woke everyone up. Torres groaned silently as she say
up. Her hand went to her side, where she had bandaged it in the shuttle
before she had woken the Captain. She got up, got ready, and was relieved
that nobody noticed her discomfort.

Twenty-five
minutes later, everybody was ready to go. They had discovered that if they
narrowed the band width on their tricorders, they could get readings on
where the away team was. They found out that they were 12 kilometers away.
They also found out that there were one hundred-thiry-four unidentified
humanoids. The away team nicknamed them the Torans, and

decided to
call the planet Tora.

Paris had informed
Captain Janeway of Torres‘s condition but they had both reluctantly agreed
that there was nothing they could do about it so no plans had been changed.
They would probaly reach the Toran village a few hours before nightfalland
set up camp a little ways before the village so when they split up to rescue
the away team they would have a place to meet. They stopped briefly to
eat once and twice for a breather, but they made good time and found a
wide cave near a stream so they dropped the gear they had brought with
them for camp of there and had continued on. An hour later, they crouched
down low on an outcrop above the village. The ‚Torans‘ were definetly humanoid,
for the peaple had huts, wore clothing of some sory, and talked to each
other in a language the away team couldn‘t understand. They spotted the
away team tied up on the far side of the village."We‘re going
to need a distraction. Any suggestions?" Captain Janeway asked in a hushed
tone.

"We could set
off some kind of device so it will explode?" B‘Elanna suggested.

Captian Janeway
just shook her head, "No, we need something that will make everyone leave."

"What about
a moving target?" Tom suggested.

"Where would
we find a moving target, Tom?" Harry asked.

"We‘ve got
four right here." he replied."Wait a second.
So you‘re saying that one of us risks our lives and runs right into the
open and practically screams, ‚Catch me if you can‘?" B‘Elanna said, then
added sarcastically, "I always thought it would be fun to commit suicide."
At that, Tom got angry but Captain Janeway managed to stop the raging fight.

"No one‘s life
would be in danger. Especially if someone else were to position themselves
somewhere and shoot at any of the Torans who might harm the runner." she
said, "The question is, who and who? B‘Elanna, you‘re the fastest runner
here. Are you up to it?"

"I‘m fine!"
B‘Elanna insisted. The truth was that her side hurt terribly and she had
a major headache.

"All right."
Captain Janeway said, "Find a place near the place where they‘re being
held captive and when I give the signal, run as fast as you can to the
other end of the village. Tom, you,"

‚Are you going
to get us out of here?‘ Captain Janeway stopped talking and looked puzzled.
Then she realized what she had heard. She looked to where the other away
team was. Whitney was looking straight at her. She nudged Chakotay, who
then nudged Tuvok, who spotted the away team. Captain Janeway nodded at
Whitney‘s question. Whitney smiled and nodded. Her hands started working
frantically, for she had managed to loosen the ropes a little.

Captain Janeway
continued, " Tom, you go to that side of the village and shoot at any Torans
who get too close to B‘Elanna. Do anything to stall time. That goes for
everyone. Harry, you‘re with me. We‘ll untie the other officers. We‘ll
have to split up now until tonight. Everybody‘s top priority is to reach
that campsite. Tom, B‘Elanna, you two stay together. Meet everybody else
at the campsite. Got it?" The other three officers nodded, "Everybody contact
me when you‘re in position. Let‘s go." Captain Janeway said, and the four
officers split up, for Kim and Janeway would hide seperatly.

B‘Elanna ran
swiftly along the tree line, her upper body bent low. Tom ran behind her.
He found a bush and stopped."Good luck."
he called out softly to B‘Elanna.

"Torres to
Janeway." she said, tapping her commbadge, "I‘m ready.""Good Everyone
else is in position. Janeway out." Captain Janeway looked over to Harry,
who nodded."Janeway to
all hands, lets do it!"On the other
side, B‘Elanna took a deep breath and sprinted out of her hiding spot.
She ran towards the village and ran in place. One of the Torans saw her
and yelled. He and twelve other Torans took off after her, followed closely
by several more, including the away team‘s gaurds. B‘Elanna looked back
one last time and ran as fast as she could.

Meanwhile,
Harry was on gaurd while Captain Janeway was untying Commander Chakotay
as fast as she could. Soon he was free and they started untying Tuvok and
Whitney.

* * * * *

Tom aimed his
phaser at one of the Torans who had almost caught up with B‘Elanna and
fired. The Toran dropped to the gound. One down, a hundred to go, Tom thought
grimly. B‘Elanna had a look on her face that he had never seen before.
It was a look of pure anguish and pain.

Oh, God! I
don‘t know how much longer I can keep this up! B‘Elanna thought, as she
ran as quickly as possible, trying to dodge the holes in the ground. Her
right foot got stuck in one and she pulled it out. She heard it snap, but
oh well! Tom fired and another Toran dropped to the ground. She smiled
gratefully at him, and continued to run, trying to put as little weight
as possible on her right foot, for it hurt badly. She was almost there.

B‘Elanna reached
the woods and looked around for the large rock she was supposed to meet
Tom at. She limped slowly over to it and sat down, soaking her foot in
the creek that ran next to it. I must have broken my ankle, she thought.
She scanned it with her tricorder and found that she had indeed broken
her ankle. Oh well,B‘Elanna thought, It was worth it. The other away

team‘s free.

Tom shot at
the Torans and they quickly scattered. He then turned his attention to
the village. He needed to buy more time. His gaze flickered to the huts
and he got an idea. He started shooting the huts, setting them on fire.
The Torans quickly forgot about B‘Elanna and ran over to the burning huts
and tried to put out the fires. Now that he and B‘Elanna were safe, he

ran for the
woods to the spot where B‘Elanna and he and agreed to meet.

* * * * *

The other away
team was free. "This way." Captain Janeway said, "We‘ll meet Tom and B‘Elanna
at a cave a few miles from here." she started walking swiftly to the woods.
Behind her, Chakotay, Tuvok, Whitney, and Kim followed. A shout came from
behind them and they started to run. Thankfully, the Torans were too busy
trying to put out the fire in one of the huts that Paris had shot at to
try and capture them.

An hour later,
Captain Janeway had made marks on the trees on the way to the Toran village
using her phaser and the fivesome easily followed them to the cave. Paris
and Torres weren‘t there yet so they got camp ready. The second away team
had brought supplies for one night, and since it was growing dark and there
were rain clouds in the distance, they decided to

spend the night
at the cave. There was a small brook nearby so Tuvok went to collect some
water in some containers and Kim and Whitney went off in search for some
firewood and kindling to make a fire. The Captain and Commander set up
camp. Soon there was water to drink and a fire burning just inside the
cave. It was dark and there was a storm brewing a few miles away, getting
closer by the minute. The five officers chatted happily but Paris and Torres
had not shown up when the storm started.

* * * * *

The bushes
rustled and Torres looked up and saw Paris. She quickly withdrew her foot
from the creek.

"Are you all
right?" he asked, walking over to her. B‘Elanna just shrugged. Tom looked
annoyed so she relented, "I don‘t think so. My ankle‘s broken pretty badly.""Can you walk?"
Paris asked, the annoyance placed with concern."I think so."
B‘Elanna replied, getting up and putting weight on it. She grimaced. The
truth was it hurt, a lot.Paris sighed
silently. Torres was in pain, but she wasn‘t going to admit it."Let‘s go."
B‘Elanna said, and she started walking slowly, following the marks on the
trees they gad made. It was growing dark when they reached the outcrop
and B‘Elanna was slowing with every step. There was no way they were going
to make it to the designated campsite."B‘Elanna,"
Tom said, walking over to her, "You‘re hurt. You shouldn‘t walk on that
ankle."B‘Elanna looked
him in the eye, ready to argue, but changed her mind when she realized
he wouldn‘t take an ‚I‘m fine!‘ for an answer, "I don‘t think I can make
it." she said haltingly."Is it just
your ankle?" Paris asked."No. My side
hurts a lot as well, even though I scanned it with a dermal regenerator."
Torres replied reluctantly.

Paris sighed,
this time with relief that Torres wasn‘t going to keep pretending she was
fine, "Here," he said, "Put your arm around my shoulder and lean on me.
That should help." B‘Elanna did as she was told and was relieved to find
that she wasn‘t putting any wieght on her right ankle."That any
better?" Paris asked."Thanks,"
and the two lieutenants slowly made their way to the cave. Soon it was
dark and it looked like it was going to rain any minute.

"We‘ll have
to find a plave to wait out the rain." Tom said. Famous last words, B‘Elanna
thought. It started raining the minute he finished saying it. She just
laughed. "I agree." A few minutes later, they spotted an old Toran hut,
suspended on poles high above the ground. No one was in sight.

"This must
have been a lookout post." B‘Elanna said, looking at the ladder, then at
the hut, and finally at her ankle."Probably.
You think you can climb up the ladder?" Tom asked."I‘ll try,"
and B‘Elanna slowly climbed the ladder. She cautiously stepped on the wooden
floor. It creaked a little under her weight but stayed put. There was no
rain leaking through the roof. B‘Elanna looked around. The walls were about
half her height, plus a few inches. There was a long bench two feet above
the ground on one side, two beds on another side, a fire pit in the middle,
one side had something that looked like a table and chairs, and the last
half wall had shelves. On the shelves were pitchers of water, blankets,
and fruit and vegetables. B‘Elanna made her way carefully over to the half
wall that had the bench. She could see for miles. She spotted the waterfall
in the distance.

Tom climbed
up and went over to her. "What is it?" he asked, but didn‘t need an answer,
for he saw the view."It‘s incredible!"
she said.Tom nodded,
"I‘ll try to start a fire with the wood here. We‘d better get some sleep."
he said.

B‘Elanna walked
over to the shelves and got some food and water. She found what looked
like glasses and got those too. She put the contents on the table. "Well?"
she asked.

Tom looked
up from the wood pile and shrugged. "If we can handle Neelix‘s leola root
casserole, we can handle some unknown fruit and vegetables." he said.B‘Elanna laughed,
"I agree."They ate a
little bit and after that they went to bed, letting the fire burn. B‘Elanna
pulled the blanket up so that it covered her body and lay back.

"Goodnight,
Tom." she said, at the same time Tom said, "Goodnight, B‘Elanna." They
laughed and fell asleep.

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 6:
Tora II

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Heather woke
up and stretched. The rain had stopped and it was a beautiful morning.
The sun was shining brightly and there was dew on the ground. She got up
and woke up Captain Janeway.

"Captain,"
Whitney said, tapping Captain Janeway on her shoulder, yawning. Soon all
five officers were awake. There was still no sign of Paris and Torres.

"Maybe they
saw the storm coming and waited it out somewhere." Heather suggested, stifling
a yawn."Should we
wait for them?" asked Harry, sipping some water from his glass."I say we
wait until 2400 hours. If they‘re not here then we‘ll head for the shuttle."
Captain Janeway supplied."But what
if they‘re not there, either?" Heather asked timidly."They‘ll be
there." Captain Janeway assured her, but there was a touch of doubt that
she couldn‘t hide from a half-batazoid. Heather sensed that she was worried
about the two lieutenants.

The five officers
finished breakfast and cleaned up. Now they had to wait. Heather groaned
inwardly. Patience was not one of her strong points. She was relieved when
Commander Chakotay suggested they go scouting to see if Paris or Torres
were hurt and needed help. Captain Janeway agreed. They left a note on
a PADD and set off.

* * * * *

B‘Elanna opened
her eyes sleepily and say up and looked around. At first, she was disoriented
as to where she was. Then she remembered. She and Tom were in a Toran hut.
B‘Elanna hopped out of bed and immediatly regretted it. She yelped in pain,
sitting back on the bed quickly. Tom woke up instantly. He stood up and
looked at her, puzzled."What happened?"
he asked.At this, B‘Elanna
blushed, "I, uh, forgot that my ankle was broken and kind of, uh, stood
on it hard." she replied, embarrased that she had forgotten.

Tom just laughed,
"Only you, B‘Elanna, would forget something like that." he said. B‘Elanna
laughed too. They ate some more fruit and vegetables and climbed down the
ladder. The sun had just reached the mountain peaks in the distance when
Paris and Torres set off in the direction of the cave where they were supposed
to have met the other away team the night before.

* * * * *

Meanwhile,
the other group was lost. They had reached an ocean and couldn‘t find their
way back to the campsite.

"Tuvok, I thought
you had made the phaser marks." Captain Janeway said, standing with her
hands on her hips.

"I had assumed
Lt. Whitny was marking the trail since I saw her use her phaser many times."
Tuvok replied, glancing at Whitney, who crossed her arms across her chest
and looked at Tuvok disdainfully."Is this true?"
Captain Janeway asked.

Heather sighed
irratibly, "No, altough I wish it were." she replied.

"Then what
were you using your phaser for?" asked Commander Chakotay.Heather rolled
her eyes, "I was playing tic-tac-toe with Harry when you, the Captain,
and Tuvok were arguing about which way to go when we reached the stream
about a mile back." she explained. Captain Janeway nearly burst out laughing.
Leave it to Heather to find something amusing to do when the senior officers
were arguing. "Well, I don‘t think that quite qualifies as

marking the
trail, Mr. Tuvok. But the question remains, how are we going to get back
to camp?"

"We could use
our tricorders to lead us to a federation signature. It would probably
lead us to the camp or even better, Tom and B‘Elanna." Harry offered.

Captain Janeway
nodded, "That sounds like a good plan. The only problem is, the tricorders
will lead us to all kinds of natural barriers. That‘s why I didn‘t think
about it before. But it is a good plan. Everyone, pull out your tricorders
and start scanning!" she said, pulling out her own tricorder. Soon, they
were on the trail.

* * * * *

B‘Elanna and
Tom pushed back branches and stepped into the clearing where the cave they
were supposed to have met the away team the night before was. There was
no one in sight.

The first thought
that crossed B‘Elanna‘s mind was that the other away team had headed for
the shuttle and/or had left Tora. But she then discovered that starfleet
supplies were scattered around the mouth of the cave. B‘Elanna found a
PADD and looked at it with interest. "Paris! It says here that the other
away team went to look for us." she said.Tom laughed.
"It looks as though we‘re going to have to look for them!" he joked, as
herummaged through
the med kit. Soon he found what he was looking for and went over to B‘Elanna.
He gave B‘Elanna a hypospray for the pain she got from her gash and a dermal
regenorater her ankle. B‘Elanna thanked him and they started talking. Every
once in a while they‘d glance around but the other away team never showed
up. When Tom checked the time, it was 1309 hours.

* * * * *"Great, just
great!" Whitney exclaimed. The tricorders had lead them to yet another
dead end.

"Lieutenant."
Captain Janeway said with a warning.

"Sorry, it‘s
just that this is so aggrivating!" Whitney said, apologizing."That‘s all
right." Captain Janeway said, surveying the river that the tricorders had
brought them to. The river was deep and wide, and they would never have
a chance of crossing it. "We‘ll have to look for a way around it. Tuvok,
Harry, and Heather, you go that way," she said, motioning with her hand
to the left. "Chakotay and I will go this way," she continued, motioning
with her hand to the right, "We‘ll meet back here in twenty minutes. Let‘s
go!" she said, quickly walking to the right. Chakotay followed her.

Tuvok led the
way to the left and the two younger officers followed. They stayed close
to the river bank but sometimes wandered inland. About a half mile down
the river, they came across a bridge made of woven branches. Tuvok cautiously
put a foot on it and pressed down. Nothing happened.He walked
onto the bridge.

Nothing happened.He turned
to Whitney and Kim and shrugged in a Vulcan manner, "It seems that this
bridge is capable of supporting weight." he said. Whitney nodded. "We should
head back to the meeting point and wait for the Captian and Commander."
Kim suggested. "That would be logical, Mr. Kim." Tuvok said, and he turned
around and the threesome started off for the spot where they had agreed
to meet Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay.

* * * * *

Meanwhile,
Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay were having less luck. They had
come across a deep ravine and didn‘t know what to do."What do we
do know?" Captain Janeway asked herself quietly.

Commander Chakotay
shrugged, "We might as well turn around." he said.Captain Janeway
thought for a second, "Let‘s follow the ravine inland and see where it
leads. There may even be a bridge farther down." she said, but she seriously
doubted it. Chakotay nodded and the two started inland. Soon the land became
rocky and they had to stop.

"We‘d better
head back." Chakotay said, concerned. Captain Janeway was breathing heavily
and so was he. They had come a long way. She nodded and got up. She tripped
on a rock and stumbled. Chakotay caught her. "You all right?" he asked.
She sat down on a nearby rock. "I‘ll be fine. I agree with Whitney. It‘s
so aggrivating!" Janeway replied, rubbing her foot. She got up and the
two continued on.

* * * * *

Half an hour
later, they met up with Tuvok, Kim, and Whitney, who had started in their
direction when they hadn‘t come back.

"This way."
Tuvok said, and the five officers tiredly made their way to the bridge
and crossed it.

* * * * *

"These stupid
vines!" Heather muttered, half an hour later. She was seriously thinking
that she was going to have to redo all the tricorders so that they would
actually lead people to where they wanted to go, for the tricorders had
first lead them to a cliff, so they had had to

turn around,
then they had lead them into an overgrown part of the forest, where there
were many low branches, bushes, and vines.

"I‘ll second
that." Harry said, pushing his way past a large branch, which swung back
andwould have knocked Heather off her feet if she hadn‘t ducked.

"Watch it!"
she told Harry, who immediatly apologized. Captain Janeway and Commander
Chakotay just laughed, Tuvok remained silent, although Captain Janeway
swore later that she had seem him smile for a second, for that had been
happening for the past ten minutes. Harry would push past a branch and
it would swing back and the first time that had

happened Heather
hadn‘t been quick enough and had been swept off her feet. A large purplish-blue
bruise was in the middle of her forehead to remember to duck the next time.
Commander Chakotay looked down at his tricorder, "We‘re almost there. It‘s
about 300 yards until the clearing - I hope." he reported.

"Thank heavens
for that." Captain Janeway said, tripping over yet another fallen branch,
and, like the last time, Chakotay caught her. He let go as soon as she
had regained her balance. "You okay?" Chakotay asked.

Captain Janeway
nodded, "Yes, I‘m just a little tired, that‘s all." she said. Soon, they
reached the clearing, to see Tom and B‘Elanna chatting while having a snack.
They stood up when they saw the away team."Where were
you guys?" B‘Elanna asked.

"We were out
looking for you!" Captain Janeway said, "What happened?""We got caught
out in the rain last night so we found an abandoned hut and spent the night
there." Tom explained."At least
you guys are all right." Heather said."B‘Elanna
looked at her with a funny look on her face, then she burst out laughing,
and as soon as Tom realized what she found funny, he started laughing,
too."Which is
more than I can say for you." B‘Elanna said, smiling."The other
away team looked at each other, for the first time taking in their appearances.
Everyone had scratches on their legs, arms, and face, Captain Janeway had
a bruise on her right hip and limped slightly when she walked, Chakotay‘s
left arm showed a large scrape, Tuvok had a long scratch on his left leg,
Harry had a sprained wrist, and Heather had a bruise that would make little
kids run back to their mothers on her forehead, from the first branch Harry
had pushed back. All of them had leaves and twigs sticking to their clothes
and Captain Janeway and Heather had twigs and leaves in their hair, which,
at the beginning of the trip, had been tied back neatly in stylish hairdos,
but now it had come undone.

Heather was
the first one to giggle. Soon her giggling turned into laughter and everyone
else joined in, except for Tuvok, who went to the med. kit and passed supplies
around and soon everyone looked 100% better. Heather even found a hairbrush
and soon Captain Janeway, B‘Elanna, and she had neat hair again. ("Much
better." Heather said, after doing her

hair back into
a french braid.)

Three hours
later, the seven officers reached the shuttle. There were four chairs in
the main compartment, so Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay, Paris, and
Torres sat down. Tuvok, Kim, and Whitney went to the passenger section.
Ten minutes later, they cleared the

turbulence
and the comm. system cleared up. They contacted Voyager and a very perplexed
Lt. Hawkins answered.

Captain Janeway
leaned back in her chair and relaxed as the shuttle docked in the shuttle
bay. "I wany everyone to report to Sick Bay immediatly." she told everyone,
saying it loudly enough for the trio in the back to hear.

"Yes, Captain."
Harry called, moving his queen to B7. "Checkmate." He had challenged Heather
to a game of chess, and she had accepted. Fortuantly he was better than
Heather at chess than he was at tic-tac-toe.

"All right,
I give up. But next time we play checkers." Heather replied, putting her
pieces back in their box.

"Fair enough."
Harry said grinning, following suit. Tuvok remained silent. He had given
advice to Heather, and when Harry had asked why, had replied, "It is only
logical that I help Lt. Whitney, not you, for she does not understand the
whole concept of the game." "In other words,

I‘m helpless."
Heather had said. Harry had just smirked. Tuvok, as always, had been right.

Harry dematerialized
the game in the replicator and the three officers walked into the main
room where everyone else was. Commander Chakotay opened the hatch and they
all headed for Sick Bay. As they walked into Sick Bay, Heather said to
no one in particular, "I‘ll tell you one thing, we‘re all going to have
major sunburns by tomorrow." Everyone laughed. The Doctor and Kes greeted
them and soon the seven officers were as good as new, if not for a few
bruises here and there. Captain Janeway said that everyone could take the
next day off. The Doctor had come up to here that last remark and had added,
"And that includes you as well,

Captain." When
Captain Janeway started to protest, the Doctor said, "Doctor‘s orders."
Captain Janeway looked annoyed but she merely nodded. "I‘ll see you around."
she told everyone and walked out of Sick Bay. When she was halfway out
the door, she turned her head, "I want a full report from each of you to
be on my desk by 1700 hours tomorrow." she said, and walked out the door,
heading for Holodeck 2.

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 7:
Rest and Relaxation

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Captain Janeway
walked down the corridor onn Deck 5 and headed for the turbolift. She just
wanted to go somewhere quiet where she could think. I‘ll try the holodecks,
she thought as she entered the turbolift. The doors closed behind her with
a woosh.

Meanwhile,
half and hour later, Tom, B‘Elanna, Harry, and Heather were in the Mess
Hall, finishing their meals, which was part of Neelix‘s latest creation.
Surprisingly, it didn‘t have any leola roots in it.B‘Elanna sat
back, "I‘m never going to eat again." she said.Tom got a
mischievous gleam in his eyes, "But we haven‘t even had dessert yet!" he
said, smiling wickedly. B‘Elanna just picked up a clean napkin from the
middle of the table, wadded it up, and threw it at Tom."Count me
out." she replied.

Heather and
Harry laughed.

"I hate to
say this, but I‘m too full for even a chocolate sundae." Heather commented.B‘Elanna just
snorted, "Sure, Heather, whatever you say," for Heather‘s favorite food
in the whole universe was a chocolate sundae, and half the ship knew it
from an incedent a while back."It‘s true!
I couldn‘t eat another bite if I wanted to!" Heather said, but she was
smiling.

"Why don‘t
we hit the holodecks?" Harry suggested.

"Sure." Tom
said, "What program do you want to run?" he asked. The other three shrugged.

"Why don‘t
we just choose one randomly from the computer?" Heather asked."Well, that‘s
better than nothing." B‘Elanna said half-heartedly, closing her eyes briefly.
The truth was, she was tired."Got any better
ideas?" Heather challenged."No." B‘Elanna
said simply, "Let‘s go." she stood up. The other three did too and they
headed for the holodecks.

* * * * *

Captain Janeway
sat down on the mossy rock and breathed the cool autumn air of the outside
of her home in Indiana. She ran her hand through the creek that ran next
to the rock. This had been her favorite place when she was young. Oh, how
she missed it! But Voyager was stranded sixty-five lightyears from the
Alpha Quadrent in the Delta Quadrent. That was enough

to make any
normal Starfleet Captain sick, but Captian Janeway stuck to her wits.Something
Heather had once told her came to mind...

It had been a
few days after Heather had first come on board and she and Captain Janeway
were talking in the Captain‘s ready room, sipping coffee and Raktejino.
The two finished laughing over something Heather had said and Captain Janeway
checked the chrometer. Gosh, how the time had passed! She had been talking
to Heather for almost an hour, but it only seemed like a minute. Heather
was funny, outward, smart, and quick.

Heather saw
the time too. Her eyes grew round like saucers. "I‘d better go. My shift
started ten minutes ago in the science lab. It was nice talking to you,
Captain Janeway." she said, getting up and setting her Raktejino back in
the replicator. She dematerialized the cup and turned to leave, but Captain
Janeway had one more question that she wanted to ask.

"Lieutenant,
before you go, one last question, what do you think of being in the Delta
Quadrent, cut off from Starfleet and the Prime Directive?" Captain Janeway
asked, standing up as well. Chakotay‘s probably wondering where I am, she
thought.

To the Captain‘s
surprise, Heather didn‘t answer right away. When she did, the answer was
plain and simple, "Well, Captain, it depends on what perspective you look
at it from. For me? It‘ll be an adventure and I think I‘m up to the challange."
Heather paused, "If you‘ll excuse me, I‘ll be in the science lab." Captain
Janeway had nodded absentmindedly so Heather had

walked out
of her Ready Room, leaving Captain Janeway deep in thought...*

A sparrow bursting
into a song brought Kathryn back to reality. She sighed and pulled her
hand out of the creek. When I look at it from one perspective, I should
be the happiest woman in the Delta Quadrent, but when I look at it from
another perspective, the one Tuvok‘s looking at it from, I‘m being ‚irrational‘
and setting a bad example for all the lieutenants and ensigns, she thought,
first happily then grimly. Tuvok was always telling her and lecturing her
about how her close relationship with Chakotay was ‚illogical‘.

Kathryn sighed
again and looked down at the PADD, willing it to write her report for her,
but all that was written on it was:

The away mission
to the planet Tora on Stardate 5073.9 happened in this order..." and she
had written it, not the PADD.

This is hopeless!
I‘ll work on it later, Kathryn thought, getting up from her sitting position
on the rock. Now, what to do? she asked herself. What she really wanted
to do was to just go to her quarters, play some soft music, get out her
paints and canvas, and finish the painting she had been working on. But,
unfortuantly, she couldn‘t go to her quarters. Maybe I‘ll just go and get
something to read, she thought.

"Computer,
end program." she said. The creek bed and forest vanished, revealing the
fellow lines on black walls of Holodeck 2. Kathryn walked out of it and
decided to just take a stroll through Voyager‘s declks. She kept the PADD
and started on Deck 8.

* * * * *"Okay, B‘Elanna,
you pick." Tom said when the four friends reached Holodeck 1."No way. Last
time I picked we eded up just standing around arguing about who was going
to be who in the holodeck novel." B‘Elanna replied, crossing her arms."You mean
to say that you didn‘t like the holonovel?" Heather asked in mock anger.B‘Elanna rolled
her eyes, "Whatever, Heather. You know as well as I do that we argued so
long that in the end we were only in the holodeck for five minutes before
we had to let Ensigns Kristo and Breton." she reminded the other Engineer,
who just grinned impishly. "But seriously, I‘m not going to be the one
who picks."

"Oh, all right.
I‘ll go through the sports, okay?" Heather said, bringing up the holodeck
menu, "Or we could always make our own holonovel." she suggested.Harry groaned,
"Oh, no, Heather. Dont‘ even think about it!" he said.Heather just
smiled, "Let‘s see, there‘s skiing, figure skating, white water rafting,
swimming, golf, tennis, horse-back-riding, martial arts, basketball, baseball,
softball, soccer, yadda, yadda, yadda." Heather said, reading the list
and ending it sarcastically, "for there‘s tons of sports here that I‘ve
never even heard of before." she explained.Everyone just
looked at her expectantly.

"Well, just
pick one!" Heather said, annoyed."Fine," Tom
said, "Why don‘t we choose something other then sports?" he suggested.
Everyone just shrugged, then Harry said, "Okay. How about a western?""Howdy, pardner!"
Heather commented. Tom and B‘Elanna just rolled their eyes.

"Or a mystery."
B‘Elanna supplied."Wait a minute.
Remember when Tuvok wrote that training program and you two thought it
was a holonovel?" Harry asked."You mean
Insurrection Alpha?" Tom asked, grinning.

Harry nodded,
"Yup, that‘s the one.""That‘s a
great idea!" Heather exclaimed, tapping commands into the control panel,
"Here‘s one for more than one persone at a time.The limit is seven people.""That sounds
good." B‘Elanna said.Heather finished
uploading the program and entered the holodeck, walking onto a federation
galaxy class starship‘s bridge. Kim, Torres, and Paris followed.Heather looked
at the view screen, where an admiral was beginning to briefthem about
their mission, which was to fight the Cardassians and to be one of the
five ships that went to the Gamma Quadrent to rescue some very important
Starfleet admirals from a prison camp. She turned to her friends, who were
also high ranking officers - like herself. They were smiling."This is going
to be fun!" B‘Elanna said.

Captain Janeway
waited for a turbolift on Deck 7. She had decided to go to the Mess Hall,
get something to eat, and finish the report, for she never put anything
off to the last minute. The turbolift doors opened and she walked in. To
her surprise, Chakotay was also there. He too had a PADD in his hand. Chakotay
smiled when he saw the PADD in her hand."Deck 2."
she told the computer.

"Working on
your report?" he asked playfully."Which is
more than I can say for you, Commander." she countered, seeing that his
PADD was blank. He laughed and she joined in."So, where
you headed?" Chakotay asked.

The turbolift
doors
opened and they walked out together, hand in hand.* * * * *An hour later,
four friends burst out of Holodeck 2.

"That was so
fun!" Heather exclaimed.

"Whatever you
say, Captain Whitney." B‘Elanna said solemnly. Everyone laughed."If you don‘t
agree with me I‘ll throw you in the brig." Heather said and they burst
out laughing again, but tried to keep straight faces when Tuvok rounded
the corner."You are not
in position to do that." he said."No, no, no,
Tuvok. It was part of a holonovel. I was only joking." Heather explained
quickly."I see. Goodnight."
Tuvok said, and he continued down the corridor, PADD in hand.

Tom watched
him go, "I don‘t think I‘ll understand him." he said thoughtfully."Tuvokk isn‘t
supposed to be understood. That‘s why he‘s a Vulcan." Harry joked, not
meaning to be mean.

Tom just shrugged,
"But still, it must be hard to be seperated from the person you love most."
he said pointedly, looking at B‘Elanna and wondering what it would be like
to be seperated from her. Pure torture. he thought.B‘Elanna caught
his eye and smiled, "It must be hard." she said agreeingly.Heather sensed
what they were both feeling and Harry had caught onto what Tom had said.
He rolled his eyes, "If these two continue to get soft on each other I
say we desert them." he said softly.

"That might
be best." Heather said solemnly, but then added with a glint in her eye,
"But that might not me a good idea, if you know what I mean..." she continued,
but couldn‘t, for she burst out laughing. Harry joined in too. Tom and
B‘Elanna looked at them."What‘s so
funny?" B‘Elanna asked.Heather choked
back her tears, "Uh, Harry just told me a really funny joke, that‘s all."
she said quickly. B‘Elanna was about to say something else but stopped."Computer,
what‘s the time?" Tom asked.

"3100 hours.""Wow, it‘s
getting late." Harry commented. Heather hesitated. She had decided that
at night Cargo Bay 2 was boring, for none of the officers went to bed before
midnight so she was going to rouse it up a little, but she would need B‘Elanna
and maybe Kes‘s help. Yes, she‘d do it.

"Actually,
B‘Elanna and I have an errand we still have to do. So we‘ll see you guys
tomorrow for breakfast at 0700 hours? Bye!" Heather said quickly, dragging
B‘Elanna away. B‘Elanna was confused but she went with Heather, for she
sensed the urgency in Heather‘s voice. When they turned the corner, B‘Elanna
stopped."Out with
it, Heather. What errand?" she asked suspiciously."O.K. Don‘t
you get bored in the cargo bay at night?" Whitney asked, turning to look
at B‘Elanna. There was a twinkle in her eye that B‘Elanna had seen before.
That twinkle meant that she was up to something fun. B‘Elanna nodded.

"So here‘s
what we‘re going to do." Heather said, and whispered her plan into B‘Elanna‘s
ear. As she did, Torres‘s face lit up in a smile. This was another thing
she liked about Heather. If anything was the slightest bit boring, Heather
would make it fun...

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 8:
A Fun Night

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After Heather
told B‘Elanna her plan and B‘Elanna agreed to play the part, B‘Elanna realized
that there was one catch, "And her name is Captain Janeway." she finished.

At that, Heather
laughed, "Okay, you got me. But let‘s find out if she‘ll be there or not."
she said.

B‘Elanna raised
her eyebrows in Tuvokian fashion, "And how do you plan to do that, Lt.
Whitney?" she asked."Easy! Internal
sensors! Computer, location of Kathryn Janeway." Heather replied."Captain Janeway
is in the Mess Hall." so Heather dragged B‘Elanna to the Mess Hall. They
walked in and started talking and laughing, not too loudly, just loudly
enough for everyone to know they were there. Heather spotted Captain Janeway
havin dinner with Commander Chakotay, and both were oblivious to the two
young lieutenants. B‘Elanna noticed that Chakotay

would say something
and Janeway would blush beet red. Heather went over to Neelix. Unfortuantly,
the Talaxian cook greeted Heather quite loudly. Captain Janeway and Commander
Chakotay looked up and Chakotay caught B‘Elanna‘s eye and gave her a cold
hard stare. B‘Elanna looked frantically Heather to see if she had noticed
that Captain Janeway was giving her the famous ‚Death Glare‘. Heather nodded
slightly but continued to talk to Neelix.

Finally, B‘Elanna
said through clenched teeth, "The clock is ticking!" Heather‘s hand flew
to her face, "Right! Listen, we‘d better go...Kes!" she exclaimed, her
face lighting up as Kes walked out of the hydroponics bay, her arms filled
with flowers. B‘Elanna was ready to murder Heather. Kes greeted them and
seemed to realize that B‘Elanna was very aggitated so she suggested that
they talk in the hydroponics bay. B‘Elanna agreed and went quickly, nearly
running into Neelix in the process. The young Ocampan wondered what was
wrong. The last time she checked, B‘Elanna hadn‘t been in a fight with
anyone. So why was she so uncomfortable?

Kes glanced
around and spotted Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay having dinner
together. They glared at her. Her normal pale complexion turned pink. Uh-oh!
she thought, and quickly followed Heather and B‘Elanna back into the hydroponics
bay. There they discussed what had happened in the Mess Hall and Heather‘s
plan. Although it was a bit ‚childish‘, everyone agreed that it would be
fun and that it would definitely liven things up in the Cargo Bay and Kes
agreed to help. The three young women headed for the cargo bay.

* * * * *

"But I don‘t
WANT to do a full report!!!" B‘Elanna wailed playfully, sitting on her
bunk. Kes stood nearby and every ensign and lieutenant were watching intently.
Heather stood next to the bunk.

"If Captain
Janeway told you to do a full report, then you‘ll do a full report!" Heather
said, using a fake English accent which she had learned how to do when
she was a child. She and B‘Elanna had been putting on a small skit for
five minutes. She winked at B‘Elanna and B‘Elanna threw a pillow at her,
hitting her in the chest. Heather picked it up and threw it wildly, missing
B‘Elanna all together and hitting Kes with it.

Kes smiled
and picked it up, "Everyone grab and pillow! All out pillow fight!" she
called out. Everyone smiled and did as they were told. The laughter increased
and Heather put on some fast upbeat music from the 20th Century.
Soon, no one was quiet, which attracted some people‘s attention...

"What is going
on in there?" Tom asked Harry, who crouched down next to him on the far
side of Cargo Bay 1. Everyone else was, too. In answer to his question,
there was a crash on the other side of the wall. They heard music and laughter.

"All I know
is that Captain Janeway would NEVER allow this." Harry replied. The commotion
had started with B‘Elanna wailing, followed by someone reprimanding her.
That had been followed by laughter, music, and an occasional thump or crash
or shriek.

Tom shrugged
and pressed his ear against the wall, straining his hearing in order to
try to figure out what was going on in the other cargo bay. His first thought
was that he should rush in and see what was the matter but Tuvok had reminded
him that everyone had been strictly ordered NOT to mix in the cargo bays.
So their curiousity remailed...

* * * * *

Captain Janeway
paused outside the door to Cargo Bay 2. Commander Chakotay, seeing that
no one was around, quickly kissed her goodnight and headed for the other
cargo bay. Captain Janeway walked into the cargo bay, expecting to find
everyone in bed or quietly carrying on conversations. Instead, there was
loud music playing and people were attacking each other

with pillows.
She just stood there, and soon was hit by one. She whirled around and grabbed
it. Looking at it‘s thrower, she found herself staring into Heather‘s sparkling
blue eyes. When Heather realized it was Captain Janeway, she sent a shrill
shriek telepathically to everyone else. They all stopped and B‘Elanna shut
the music off.

"Can you explain
this chaos, Lt.?" Captain Janeway asked angrily, looking straight into
Heather‘s surprised eyes. B‘Elanna and Kes stood nearby. Everyone else
stood still, not bothering to move from their positions, wondering what
would happen. For they had all broken the rules and would probably get
in BIG trouble.

This is the
limit! Kathryn thought bitterly, First they spy on me and then they create
choas and havoc.

Heather gaped,
her telepathic powers clicking in. "We were NOT spying on you, Captain.
We only went to the Mess Hall to see if you were going to be there for
a while, ‚cause if you were, we‘d go ahead and have..." she stopped, groping
for a word. She couldn‘t find one so she just shrugged.

Captain Janeway
looked mildly surprised. Then a sneaking suspicion crossed her mind and
it hurt. A lot. Had Heather set Chakotay up with her to keep her preoccupied?
She hurt, and it must have shown on her face, for Heather quickly added
in a whisper, "No way! We would NEVER, EVER go as low as setting Commander
Chakotay and you up. Only B‘Elanna, Kes, and I knew about this. We didn‘t
know anything about the dinner thing." she explained.Captain Janeway
nodded. She was beginning to understand...* * * * *

Commander Chakotay
walked into Cargo Bay 2, a soft smile on his face. It quickly vanished
and was replaced by puzzlement and curiousity when he saw that every man
had his ear pressed against the left wall. He went over to Tuvok and tapped
him on the shoulder. When Tuvok looked up, Chakotay asked, "What‘s going
on?""I don‘t know.
There are unusual sounds coming from Cargo Bay 2." Tuvok explained."Sounds?"
Chakotay asked curiously. Tom looked up, "Yeah, as in B‘Elanna

wailing, someone
- I‘m pretty sure it was Heather since she LOVES to talk with an English
accent - yelling in an English accent, laughter, shouts, music, shrieks,
crashing sounds, and thumps." Tom explained.

Chakotay hesitated,
then said, "Tom, Harry, you two come with me and we‘ll see what‘s the matter.",
and the two men walked the short distance to Cargo Bay 2.

* * * * *

The door chimed.
Everyone in Cargo Bay 2 had resumed the pillow fight after Captain Janeway
said it was fine, "But next time tell me so I can join in." she had said.
Everyone else had willingly agreed. Eeryone stopped in an instant.

"Computer,
stop music." Heather said quickly, and the music (Wannabe from

Spice Girls
- one of Heather‘s favorite songs from the 1900‘s) ended abruptly, leaving
the song hanging with "If you wanna be..."

"I‘ll get it."
Captain Janeway said, "Everyone get into bed and act natural." and she
got down from a top bunk she had been perching on and made her way to the
door. All the lieutenants and ensigns (plus Kes) got into bed hurriedly
and they instinctively pulled the covers over themselves.

Captain Janeway
chided herself for getting undressed and into her nightgown so quickly.
She pressed a button on the control panel and the doors opened. Outside,
Commander Chakotay, Paris, and Kim were there.

"We were just
checking to make sure everything was okay." Chakotay asked when Janeway
asked the three why they were there. Tom looked over the first officer‘s
shoulder. Everyone - minus the Captain - was in bed. He spotted B‘Elanna
and Heather. They were both lying on their stomaches facing the door. B‘Elanna‘s
face had an impassive look on it, except for her sparkling dark brown eyes,
which were watching everything. He could only see Heather‘s eyes, which
were as big as saucers. Her head was bent behind her pillow, and, although
Tom couldn‘t see, she was trying hard not to laugh and so was B‘Elanna,
although B‘Elanna‘s mouth twitched into a smile now and then."Why wouldn‘t
everything be okay?" Captain Janeway asked, even more puzzled.

Harry noticed
that B‘Elanna had her face in her hands and was uncontrollably shaking,
Heather had her face buried in her pillow, and everyone else was trying
not to laugh.

After talking
for a few minutes, they said goodnight and left. Once the doors closed,
Captain Janeway burst out laughing. She leaned against the wall for support."Did you hear
him?" B‘Elanna said, laughing freely.

Good natured
groans followed. Then Heather‘s eyes lit up and she said jokingly, "What
you mean is that we all need our beauty sleep!"Everyone laughed.When the lights
were turned off and everyone was in bed, Captain Janeway told everyone,
"Oh, and not a word of this to them. Goodnight."

Goodnights
echoed the room, and Heather kept on saying goodnight and B‘Elanna and
Kes would say goodnight to her and then Heather would say goodnight to
them (they kept that up for about 5 minutes) until the Captain said, "Lieutenants!"
The three got the message and fell asleep.

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 9:
Attack

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next day
everything ran smoothly, except that the women were questioned by the men
about what had gone on the night beofre. At lunch, Tom and Harry questioned
B‘Elanna and Heather."What was
all that noise last night?" Tom asked.

Heather just
smiled and in her most dignified manner said, "It‘s classified."Tom rolled
his eyes, "B‘Elanna, will you tell us?" he asked, looking deep into her
eyes, searching for the answer.B‘Elanna just
said simpley, "No.""Aw, come
on, B‘Elanna," he said, reaching out to caress her hand, which was on the
table. B‘Elanna just glared at him and pulled her hand away, saying, "I
don‘t think so, Tom." Tom just grinned playfully, but Heather and Harry
had noticed that B‘Elanna hadn‘t withdrawn her hand immediately. They grinned.
It was very interesting to watch Tom and B‘Elanna‘s relationship blossom.

* * * * *

Ten days later,
Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay were sitting in their chairs on
the bridge talking when Tuvok notified them that there was an unidentified
ship a light year away. "It will intercept us in five minutes at its present
speed."

Captain Janeway
stood up, "Shields up. Yellow alert. Stand by on weapons but load torpedo
bays." she ordered. So much for the last few days being peace and quiet.
she thought grimly.The vessel
soon appeared and stopped right in front of thier path."Ensign Camaroon,
hail the vessel." she told the young brunette who was manning Ops. The
ensign did as she was told, "They‘re not answering our hails, Captain."
she said."The unidentified
ship has weapons armed." Tuvok informed her.That was the
last straw for Captain Janeway. First, they block our path. Then, they
don‘t respond to our hails, and then they have weapons armed at my ship!
she thought angrily.

"Arm photon
torpedoes and phasers." she told Tuvok, while Commander Chakotay tapped
his comm. badge and said, "Senior officers to the bridge. All remaining
crew members stand by."

Captain Janeway
smiled inspite of the situation. She didn‘t know what she‘d do if Chakotay
hadn‘t been there. The turbolift doors opened and Paris, Torres, Kim, and
Whitney stepped out and dashed to their stations, just as the other ship
opened fire.

"Fire photon
torpedoes." Captain Janeway yelled. Five torpedoes were launched and they
hit their target. Bullseye! Heather thought gleefully."Minimal impact
on the unidentified ship." Tuvok informed the crew.Captain Janeway
dashed over to Torres‘s station, "B‘Elanna, can you reroute power to the
forward shields?" she asked. B‘Elanna darted a glance towards the Captain
and nodded. The scene that then took place in slow motion was like a nightmare.

The unidentified
ship fired again, but this time was different. This time, their weapons
went right through Voyager‘s shields, and blew up the bridge, sending Captain
Janeway and B‘Elanna flying over the station. They landed with a thud and
didn‘t get up. Chakotay ran over to them, Tom at his heels. Chakotay took
thier pulse, "They‘re still alive." he said. Tom nodded but

didn‘t leave.
Neither did Chakotay.

"Tuvok, destroy
that ship." he ordered, "Tom, get us out of here, Warp 8." he said, standing
up. Tom ran back to his station. His face turned pale, "Warp drive is off
line." he told them.

Heather contacted
Engineering, "Carey, run program titled ‚Whitimes Alpha 3." she said. No
sooner were those words spoken than everyone felt a jolt. The other ship
exploded and

Voyager‘s crew
cheered. Then they realized that Janeway and Torres were still unconcious.
Tom and Chakotay dashed back to them. Heather was already there, "They‘re
still alive but unless we get them to Sick Bay in the next ten minutes
they‘ll probably die." she said.

"Damage reports
are coming in from all decks, Commander. 32 people are injured and life
support systems are failing on Decks 6, 7, 8, and 10." Tuvok called from
his station.

Chakotay nodded,
"Evacuate those decks. Can we beam these two to Sick Bay?" he asked Harry,
who shook his head."Transporters
are offline." the ensign informed Chakotay.When Chakotay
heard that he picked Captain Janeway up and headed for the turbolift. Tom
followed his example and picked B‘Elanna up as well, and followed Chakotay."Tuvok, you
have the bridge." Chakotay said.Heather went
with them, for she knew that Engineering would be chaos. The turbolift
doors shut and it slowly descended down the shaft.

A fleeting
thought ran through Heather‘s mind and she smiled. The Captain and Cheif
Engineer would be miffed that Chakotay and Tom had picked them up, Especially
B‘Elanna. she thought. Tom and Chakotay noticed that Heather was smiling,
"What is so funny, Whitney?" Chakotay asked.

Heather looked
up from her gaze at the floor, "Oh, nothing." she said, shrugging. The
turbolift doors opened and Chakotay and Tom got out and headed for Sick
Bay. The doors closed and the turbolift made its way to Engineering.

As Heather
had forseen, it was chaos. People were dashing around so fast that they
were running into one another.

"Carey!" she
called. A baffled Lt. Joe Carey ran over to her. "Lt., warp drive, transporters,
shields, weapons array, and comm. systems are down. Life support systems
are failing on almost all the decsk." he informed her.

Heather nodded,
"Lt. Torres is in Sick Bay so we‘ll have to work twice as hard. Make life
support your top priority. I‘ll work on warp drive." she said.

Carey nodded
and went over to a control panel, obviously relieved to have someone else
take control."Vorek!" Heather
called. The young vulcan came over to her, "Yes, Lt.?"Heather looked
up from the console she was working at. She had always found Vorek annoying
because he was so logical, but she had no idea why B‘Elanna hated him so
much. When she had asked, B‘Elanna‘s face showed utter disgust, "Don‘t
ask. You don‘t want to know." was the answer. When Heather had asked Tom
if he knew, he had replied, "Don‘t go there." Heather had made one more
attempt to find out with harry, and, to her surprise, he didn‘t know either.
"All I know is that Vorek made something happen to B‘Elanna that affected
her and Tom‘s growing relationship and things were never the same after
they came back from the away mission to Sakarii.""Help Carey
with life support." she said, and he went off to help Carey.

"Redington!"
she called and a young brunette came over."Yes, Lt.?"
she asked quietly. Heather smiled, trying to put the young ensign at ease,
"Ensign, help me fix the warp drive. We want to be able to get out of here
if any more ships start attacking." "Yes, sir" Ensign Redington replied,
and the two got to work.

* * * * *

Sick Bay was
crowded. "Put them on bio beds 2 and 3." he said, giving the two unconcious
women hyposprays."Doctor, how
bad is it?" Chakotay asked, laying Janeway gently down on Bio Bed 2."I‘d say these
two are the worst. Mostly it‘s just second degree burns and broken bones."
the Doctor replied, running a medical tricorder over B‘Elanna. He frowned,
"They both have major concussions and second and third degree burns. I‘ll
give them some cartroziod to stabalize them." he said."And what‘s
that supposed to mean?" Tom asked, holding B‘Elanna‘s limp hand."That means,
Mr. Paris, that all we can do is wait. The longer they remain in comas,
the less likely it is for them to live. If you‘ll excuse me," he explained,
going over to treat another patient. Chakotay and Tom looked at each other,
then at Captain Janeway and B‘Elanna.

"We‘d better
go back to the bridge." Chakotay said, but he didn‘t move. Neither did
Tom. Kes came over to them, "There‘s nothing for you two here. Aren‘t you
needed on the bridge?" Kes asked, using a dermal regenerator to heal Janeway
and Torres‘s burns.

Chakotay and
Tom realized that she was right so they reluctantly went to the bridge
after they had gotten Kes to promise them that she would contact them if
the Captain or Cheif Engineer‘s conditions changed.

* * * * *

B‘Elanna was
concious of feeling cold and tired. She felt as though she were floating
in a cold tank of water, except that her body felt so heavy, she knew she
would jsut sink to the bottom.

She had no
idea where she was or what had happened. The last thing she remembered
clearly was a ship firing on Voyager, then she couldn‘t remember anything
after that. She felt someone give her a hypospray. The last thing she remembered
before drifting into a deep sleep was Tom touching her cheek and saying
her name softly.

* * * * *

Kathryn heard
voices around her and tried to open her eyes, but she couldn‘t. Her eyelids
felt like dead weights. She heard Chakotay‘s voice and tried to focus on
it. He was asking someone - the Doctor - something. She heard her name
mentioned and smiled softly. All of a sudden, she felt cold and light,
as if she were floating in space. She felt someone give her a hypospray
and she had to concentrate twice as hard to ehar what was being said and
done around her. The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was
Chakotay whispering her name.

* * * * *

Engineering
was chaos. So far they had gotten life support, impulse engines, and the
shields back on-line. Warp drive , the comm. system, transporters, and
the weapons array were still off-line. Heather had everyone dashing around,
while she worked on the comm. system. "Whitney to Kim." she said, tryingn
for the fifth time, and, like the other four times, she got nothing but
static. She rewired it and tried again, "Whitney to Kim." This time, Harry‘s
voice came over the comm. system, "Yes, Heather?" he asked.

Heather almost
whooped with triumph. "Harry, we could really use your help down here.
If you‘re not too busy, could you comem down here? Because I have a hunch
that my ‚medical expertise‘ might be needed in Sick Bay." she told him.

"The Doctor
and Kes‘ll faint with relief when you walk through the doors." Harry joked,
"I‘m on my way. Kim out." and the comm. system was cut off.Heather contacted
Kes, "Whitney to Kes." she said.

Kes answered
with a sigh, "Kes here. What can I do for you, Lt.?"

"I was wondering
if you need any help in Sick Bay." Heather replied.

"Oh. That would
be great! I‘ve got to go. Kes out."Heather crawled
out of the Jeffories tube she had been working in. When she looked around,
she saw Harry coming towards her.

"Harry!" she
called, "Can you take over for me?" she asked. Harry nodded, "You‘d better
get down to SIck Bay. There were lots of people injured."

Heather nodded
and dashed off, stopping a few meters away from the door, "And the latest
news on Janeway and B‘Elanna?" she asked.

Harry shrugged,
"Chakotay and Tom didn‘t look too happy when they came back to the bridge
from Sick Bay." he said. Heather nodded and went to Sick Bay.

* * * * *Heather ran
into Sick Bay. Kes looked up and smiled, relieved."Heather!
Thank goodness you‘re here. Grab a medical tricorder ." she told Heather,
who did as she was told, and for the next two hours they treated injured
crew members. It was exhausting work, but finally everyone who had been
injured was cured and the last patient (minus Captain Janeway and Lt. Torres)
left Sick Bay. Kes and Heather sat on a bio bed next to B‘Elanna and Captain
Janeway.

"That was so
tiresome!" Heather said, "Now I‘m sure I made the right choice to major
in Science and Engineering." he said.Kes smiled
tiredly, "It‘s not that bad." she said."I know, I
was kidding, Kes." Heather said, her gaze drifting towards her two friends
that lay unconcious on the bio beds. Then the Doctor came out of his office
with the restults to the tests he had run on Janeway and B‘Elanna.

"The proginosis
is not good." he said, "Captain Janeway and Lt. Torres both suffered severe
concussions. They are both in comas and there is nothing I can do to help.
All we can do is wait." Commander Chakotay and Tom walked up to hear the
last comment. Both men wore worried looks on their faces and were both
frowning.

Heather sighed,
"I‘d better go to Engineering. There‘s still a lot of work to be done."
she said, hopping off the bio beds. The looks on everyone‘s faces was sickening,
for anyone could tell that everyone was worried sick about the two women.

=/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\=

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 10:
Attack

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next day
passed and neither Janeway nor Torres got any better. Chakotay and Paris
spent most of their free time in Sick Bay, although they didn‘t have much
of it. Thankfully, though, Voyager didn‘t run into any more unidentified
ships.

Lt. Whitney
sat
back in a chair in Engineering and sighed. The last malfunction had just
been fixed.Lt. Carey
came up to her, "Is there anything else, Lt.?" he asked.Heather just
smiled, "No, Carey. If you can think of anything that needs fixing, I‘ll
give you a week‘s worth of replicator rations." she said.

Carey just
shook his head, "As much as I‘d like to not have to endure another week
of Neelix‘s latest leoa root fantasies, I have to admit that we‘ve fixed
everything." he replied. Heather laughed, "That‘s right. And we‘d better
keep it that way or else Torres‘ll have our heads." she said. Just then,
Harry walked into Engineering.

"How are things
going?" he asked, a padd in hand which he handed to Heather.

Heather just
smiled, "Everythings running excellent! Now all we have to do is get out
of this god forsaken system and everything‘ll be normal again! Although
I kinda like wearing short sleeves." she added, reffering to the yellow
tank top she had on.

Ensign Jane
Marlett and Ensign Morgan Chesly came up to them, "Is there anything else
we can do?" Jane asked.

Carey nodded,
"Nothing else that I can think of."

"Me neither.
I say that we all go to the holodeck and relax." Heather suggested.

"But shouldn‘t
we stay here?" Morgan asked, bewildered.

Heather shrugged,
"There‘s nothing else for us to do here and we‘re practically bored out
of our minds! Don‘t tell me you want work." she said.

Everyone smiled.
"You mean it?" Jane asked.

Heather got
up and stretched, "Last one there is a rotten egg." she called, and quickly
walked out of Engineering to the turbolift. Everyone just stood rooted
to the spot. Then Harry shrugged, "You heard her. Let‘s go."

* * * * *Heather sat
back, "This is the life." she said."I just hope
nobody walks into Engineering and gets us all in trouble." Harry said,
glancing around. Heather had run Neelix‘s resort program, although she
had turned down the temperature to 60 degress. Everyone was either swimming
or talking gaily. But most of all, everyone was having fun.

Heather got
up from the beach chair, "I don‘t know about you but the water‘s too tempting
for me. I‘m going to go swim." and she dived into the water, her body rejoicing
at the coolness of the water and she surfed with the waves.

* * * * *

Captain Janeway
opened her eyes and sat up. She was in Sick Bay and the lights were dimmed.
She glanced around. Kes was busy working at a console and the Doctor was
in his office. Then her gaze rested on B‘Elanna. She was still unconcious.

Before Captain
Janeway could utter a word, the Doctor glanced up and saw her. He immediately
grabbed a tricorder and walked swiftly towards her."Lie back
down." he said. Captain Janeway did as she was told, for she felt a little
dizzy.

"Doctor, what-"
she sat up again, but this time the pain was too great. She lay down again."I‘ll explain
everything to you, Captain, just please lie still." the Doctor ordered.
"It‘s been a day since the attack and there has been no sign of the unidentified
ship. You and Lt. Torres were knocked unconcious during the attack and
have been in comas ever since.""What‘s the
time?"

"1900 hours."
the Doctor replied.

Kes walked
up. "Captain!" she said, a smile lighting up her face.

Captain Janeway
smiled."Kes, get
me a hypospray filled with katrozoid." the Doctor said. Kes handed him
a hypospray and he injected it into the Captain‘s neck.

"You‘re free
to go, although you are hereby relieved of duty for a week." the Doctor
said sternly."But-" Captain
Janeway started to protest.

"Fine," Captain
Janeway said, getting up. "Thanks.""You‘re welcome."
Kes called after the retreating form of her Captain. She then glanced at
B‘Elanna."One down,
one more to go." the Doctor said.* * * * *

Four Days Later....

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""

ON THE BRIDGE:

Heather sat
on the bridge, watching the view screen. On top of her worrying about B‘Elanna,
Captain Janeway (since she still wasn‘t feeling as well as she should),
if the enviromentaly controls would hold out, if there would be a warp
core breech since there was a lot of stress on the warp core since it had
almost been a month since they had entered Kalaria, and how the crew was
holding up, there was one more thing and it wasn‘t exactly minor. The ship
was back.

"Yes, sir,"
Heather replied. She, Harry, and Lt. Carey had come up with an idea two
days ago, when they were looking over the scans of the other ship‘s weapons.
They were chroniton based so they passed through their shields. However,
they had re-modified the deflector grid and the shields were ready to be
put to use.But the question
is, will they work? Heather asked grimly.

"We‘ll find
out." Tom replied.

Heather looked
up. "What?" she asked, confused.

"You just asked
if the shields would work," Harry said.

Heather laughed
dimly. "I didn‘t even realize I was speaking out loud." she said truthfully.

Chakotay smiled,
"Let‘s just hope they do."

"Sir, the other
ship is arming its weapons." Tuvok informed them.

"All hands,
brace for impact."

The torpedo
rocked the ship. Nothing happened.

"Ensign Kim?"
Commander Chakotay asked.

"No damage.
The shields are still holding." Harry replied, a smile on his face.

"It worked!"
Heather said, amazed.By now, the
other ship had realized that they couldn‘t defeat Voyager so they were
quickly trying to escape."Fire photon
torpedos." Chakotay ordered.

"Sir?" Tuvok
asked.

"Just to give
them a warning," came the explanation.

"Cowards,"
Heather muttered under her breath.

Everyone laughed,
for they knew what she meant.* * * * *

IN SICK
BAY:

B‘Elanna sat
up. The red klaxons were flaring. She was in Sick Bay. How did I get here?
she asked herself. Then she smiled, dimly remembering Tom lifting her up
and carrying her.Kes came over
to her, "B‘Elanna!" she said, pleased that the cheif engineer was concious.

"Kes," B‘Elanna
said weakly. "How long have I been in a coma?""Five days,"
Kes replied, scanning her with a tricorder. She gave her an injection of
katrozoid. "There, that should help the dizziness go away.""How‘d you
know?" B‘Elanna asked, for it was true. She had been feeling dizzy.

"It‘s only
natural." Kes said.

"What‘s going
on? Why is the ship on red alert?""I guess that
ship that attacked us five days ago is back," Kes explained, still scanning
her with a tricorder.Then, the
red klaxons stopped.The Doctor
came over. "I just recieved a message from Commander Chakotay. The enemy
ship has withdrawn its attack.""Good," Kes
said, relieved.

The Doctor
took Kes‘s tricorder and went over to compare the information with the
computer‘s.Kes then smiled.
She had been weighing the odds of whether to tell B‘Elanna or not. She
would. For one, she thought B‘Elanna would want to know, two, it was sweet,
and three, she wanted to see B‘Elanna‘s reaction."Tom‘s been
really worried about you." she commented softly.

B‘Elanna said
nothing, but she blushed."He‘s been
spending all his free time here by your bedside," Kes continued. By now,
B‘Elanna‘s face had turned beet red, but before she could say anything,
the Doctor came up."I suggest
you get some rest," the Doctor told her.B‘Elanna nodded.
"Now that I think of it, I‘m not exactly feeling great." she said, trying
to act normal. The truth was, her head was full of thoughts...about Tom."That‘s only
natural. Your body has been in a coma for five days." Kes informed her.

B‘Elanna nodded.
"Thanks, Doc, Kes," she said, "So, when can I go back on duty?"

The Doctor
gave her a withering glance. "In five days."Surprisingly,
B‘Elanna just nodded and walked out the door, not even aware of Kes‘s knowing
smile. The Doctor turned to the young Ocampan."What was
that all about?" he asked.Kes just smiled.
"You‘ll figure it out eventually...with time." she said. Then she walked
off, leaving the Doctor more confused than ever.

* * * * *

Captain Janeway
glanced around. It was a week later, and everyone was gathered in Holodeck
2 to celebrate, for Voyager had left Klaria that day. And things were better
than ever.

"You what?"
B‘Elanna asked incredulously, staring at Heather, who just smiled, for
Harry had just finished telling Tom and B‘Elanna about the trip to the
Holodeck.

"I took all
the engineers to the holodeck and we had a. . . ," Heather

"Party!" Jane
Marlett chimed in as she walked by. Heather gave her a withering glance
but Jane just laughed and went off to join Michael Smith - her date, Morgan
Chesly, Beth Carmen, Melissa Paso, and their dates.To Heather‘s
surprise, B‘Elanna burst out laughing.

Tom shook his
head. "You are the limit, Heather," he teased.

Harry laughed
and Tom joined in."Well, it
was a lot more fun than doing nothing!" Heather retorted, but she, too,
was laughing.Then music
started to play. Tom turned to B‘Elanna.

"When you were
in a coma, I realized..." Tom‘s voice trailed off, feeling nervous again.

"Realized what?"
she asked.

"I love you.
I never want you to leave." he said quickly in a rush.B‘Elanna looked
up at him, her chocolate brown eyes wide. After what seemed like an eternity
to both of them, she replied truthfully. "I love you, too."

Tom leaned
in to kiss her, and she realized what she had said was true. She did love
him, and always would.=/\= =/\=
=/\= THE END =/\= =/\= =/\=